ZAGREB, May 15, 2018 – The emergency administrator in the ailing Agrokor conglomerate Fabris Peruško said on Tuesday the psychosis being created in public was not helping the emergency administration, while representatives on creditors said they were running the process and paying for the expenses of the administration and its advisors.
“This is a process we are running. The psychosis being created in public, mainly by those who are not part of the process, is not helping it. It’s definitely slowing down the process,” Peruško told reporters, adding that the creditors were running the process – suppliers, financial creditors, and companies.
A big problem in the emergency administration process is the contesting of claims for tactical reasons, the purpose of which is to prevent the process from being completed, he said. “That’s definitely slowing this process a lot, preventing us from completing it successfully.”
He said that the fact that there was no permanent creditors’ council was not a big problem as the law on Agrokor stated clearly that a decision on a settlement could be adopted by the interim creditors’ council. The creditors have invested considerable funds in Agrokor and, together with the emergency administration and its advisors, they are focused only on reaching a settlement which will be just for all stakeholders, said Andrew Shannahan, a representative of Knighthead. We wish to say very clearly that the interim creditors council standing here today represents all creditors in Agrokor, who will soon become Agrokor’s owners, after the completion of this process, he said, adding that the creditors were paying for all advisor and emergency administration expenses.
The expenses are very high and in line with international standards in cases of such complexity and difficulty, Shannahan said, adding that although high, the expenses were necessary for closing such a complex case.
Given the magnitude of Agrokor’s problems and debts, and without the international advisors and local experts and the enormous effort of the emergency administration, we would not be where we are today, Dijana Nikolova of VTB bank said.
Speaking on behalf of big suppliers, Marica Vidaković said that thanks to everyone who had helped, the crisis was over, business had stabilised and the conglomerate was liquid and supplied. “A good job has been done, given the frameworks.”
“Creditors, employees and the emergency administration, together with the advisors and everyone who has wanted this process to be finished, have absolutely been the most important on this journey. We are in the home stretch,” Vidaković said, adding that the process was ending “relatively well, considering how it could have ended had there been no intervention and had a systemic crisis not been averted.”
Asked when a settlement could be expected, Peruško said he “would rather not specify a date, but around mid-June.”
Asked if Economy Minister Martina Dalić’s resignation could affect the reaching of a settlement, Vidaković said she wanted to thank Dalić, the emergency administration and all advisors who have helped so that a settlement could be reached. “We are currently on the business scene and what’s happening on the political scene is totally unacceptable. For me, politics should have stopped exerting its influence the minute the law (on Agrokor) was adopted in parliament and done what the law envisaged, to oversee if the process is being conducted in line with it,” Vidaković said. “This process is being run by the creditors. It’s our money, our interest and the interest of our companies, and we will certainly bring it to completion,” she added.
Dalić resigned on Monday in the wake of leaks of her email correspondence with the consultants and lawyers who had worked on the law on emergency administration in strategic companies, dubbed Lex Agrokor, after the ailing food and retail conglomerate. Some of them were later hired as advisers in Agrokor for high fees.
